Some American mosques are altering their programs to suit the needs of the Second- and Third-Generation Muslim immigrants — those young people who were born in the United States.

An article last week in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that “younger congregants are searching for mosques that are less rigid about separating genders during prayers and that have leaders who understand American culture.”

The younger generations are less willing to listen to the admonitions of imams imported from Muslim-majority countries, causing a staffing problem at Muslim institutions.

ISIS — which purports to fight for a world where an Islamic Caliphate is dominant — has released a video purportedly showing that it has beheaded Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an American citizen.

This Muslim convert was known as Peter Kassig before he headed to Syria to work in civilian relief efforts.

Have cooler heads (if that term can even be applied to ISIS leadership) lost control of their troops? What possible reason could there be for an Islamic State to kill a Muslim convert? Isn’t one of their tenets that all people should be (or become) Muslim?

Women and Sharia"No group is more harmed by sharia than Muslim women -- a reflection in part of the patriarchal tribal culture out of which Islamic law emerged."
Admittedly, the writer is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a controversial figure in Islam.
However, she does have a point: men and women are treated differently

Erasing History?"The recent vandalization of Nimrud and Hatra by the so-called Islamic State—and the destruction of lesser shrines in Libya by local Islamists, which started in 2012—is not an isolated phenomenon. It stems from deep-seated pathologies afflicting the Muslim world," writes Ann Marlowe in The Daily

Meanwhile, Back in Pakistan....The idiots have targeted and killed Christians on their way to church yesterday (and a couple of Paki police in the bargain) -- idiots because they're suicide bombers and idiots because killing people who have different beliefs than yours is a mug's game.
Here's one place to read more about this

Islam and Middle School in NYCSharon Otterman, a reporter for The New York TimesMK/I> penned a thoughtful article on Sandra Ibrahim. The middle school student's tentative steps toward wearing hijab have been met with derision, teasing and hazing.
This writer wonders whether this Arab custom from the seventh century really

Why is ISIS Afraid of History?ISIS began bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq last week, reports the Agence France Presse
Why is ISIS afraid of history? Best guess: they're uneducated.
History is humanity's backstory, and tearing down the past does not erase it.